When I first visited Burma 20 years ago this month, the country was ruled by a repressive military junta called the SLORC, and its Nobel laureate democracy activist, Aung San Suu Kyi, was under house arrest and faced almost daily vilification in the official newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar. Banned radio stations such as the BBC were denounced as a “skyful of lies,” and critics of the military faced long prison sentences as “internal and external destructive elements.”

(New York) – The Burmese military has conducted a campaign of arson, killings, and rape against ethnic Rohingya that has threatened the lives of thousands more, Human Rights Watch said today. Refugees who fled the recent violence told Human Rights Watch that since the October 9, 2016 attacks by Rohingya militants on government border guard posts in northern Rakhine State, Burmese security forces have retaliated by inflicting horrific abuses on the Rohingya population.

For a few hours on 13 August, a section of river bank in the French capital near the Pont d’Arcole will be turned into “Tel Aviv sur Seine” (Tel Aviv on the Seine), complete with falafel stands and “Israeli nightlife.” ¨(1)

Isn´t it cosy.

Tel Aviv sur Seine will be held at ´´Paris Plage´´

, a simulated beach the city sets up in the summer. (2)

Lionel Choukroun, director of Agence Culturelle, the company that is producing the event, says the idea is “to give Parisians and tourists the Tel Aviv experience without having to go anywhere.” (3)